PACKIN’

• Entries will be drawn today for Woodbine’s Friday card and after 5 racing cards to begin the 2009 season the horses who stayed in Ontario to train have been doing a bit better than the winter raced ones.

Certainly the distances of 5 and 5 ½ furlongs play more in the favour of the pure quick-types and oftentimes, horses coming from winter racing in the United States are having to adjust their distances.

After 5 cards, the percentage of locally-wintered horses to southern-raced/trained is almost 3 to 1. The leading trainers and jockeys are listed below:

• SMART SURPRISE, a double stakes winner for Hill ‘n’ Dale Equine Holdings Inc., is back from a winter in the south and may not have many rivals in Saturday’s feature at Woodbine – the Grade 3 Whimsical.

Named after a famous mare who won the Preakness Stakes, the Whimsical will be Smart Surprise’s first race at Woodbine since she romped in the Bessarabian Stakes last fall.

She is a daughter of Smart Strike.

On Sunday, fillies trying out for the Woodbine Oaks in June are up in the STAR SHOOT STAKES.

Several from opening day’s La Voyageuse Stakes figure to be in the race although the winner of that event, MULLINS BEACH (Speightstown) would have to be supplemented to the Star Shoot since she has not been nominated.

TOP CANADIAN BRED STERWINS SET FOR SUNDAY

• Eugene Menyk’s graded stakes winner STERWINS, consistently on the HOT CANADIAN-BRED LIST on Thoroughblog (see list on the main page of the site) is schecueld to meet a small group on Sunday in the Grade 3 Ben Ali Stakes at Keeneland.

Sterwins recently worked 5 furlongs over a slow track (yesterday) at Keeneland the Clocker’s Comment reported:

Sterwins(5f) in 100.0

Comment: was well within himself

mike murphy

9:51 am on April 14, 2009

I want to give props to the camera operators at SUN TV.

Whoever was shooting the race chantal sutherland won saturday did a great job. The close up shots of her ass were phenominal as she was galloping out after the race.

dear operator: I don’t know who you are but keep up the good work. Shots like that deserve a Sovereign award nomination. hell maybe a entire category all to themselves.

Tampa Bay has a handicappers ‘pick sheet’ which is provided by Equibase. It is geared to newcomers to the track and infrequent visitors. Although it is not my style of handicapping, I have never seen a pick sheet so neatly done.

The essence of the ‘sheet’ is based on a show and $1-4 horse exacta box and the other is a win and $2 -3 horse box.

It is all done with a bit of whimsy, but the ultimate result is that the ‘newbie’ is not going to leave the track tapped out. They will come back.

To access the ‘pick sheet’ go to the Tampa website, click on Racing.click on race info and click on handicapping.

the commentators from Woodbine need to take lessons from HRTV or even TGV. The WDBN ew like to talk down to the crowd and if it isnt their pick then no one knows about the horse(or their connections) this has been happening since it began. Remember when Renee talked only about Jimmy Mac then changed her tune to EmmaJayne? Could that have been because her husband had their books at the time?? I cant blame her but she should have brought more insight into the sport than just those two riders.

By submitting your email, you agree to receive electronic communications from Horse Publications Group, containing news, updates and promotions about the Canadian equestrian industry. You may withdraw your consent at any time.

Love our Articles?

If you enjoyed reading the articles on this website, consider subscribing to get upcoming issues as they are published! Simply click on the button below to see your options.